Building record 1819/1/1 - Calveley Hall

<1> Chester Courant, 1878-1990, The Cheshire Sheaf, Third series, vol.17, no.4018 (Newspaper-Magazine). SCH3105.

Calveley Hall stands on Milton Green, a common which was enclosed about 1845, and the house is so named from its having been a seat of the Calveley family, but when it was built, or when it was first so called, is not known…The house is a large brick building with stone quoins, and consists of three storeys…part of the hall was taken down in 1818, and it is further on record that the exterior was much modernised in the middle of the last century…It now presents a plain and uninteresting plaster-covered front…the rear of the house is irregular and of a rambling appearance, and the outbuildings are very extensive…’

‘…A garden occupies the space before the Hall, and, directly in front of the door, there are two tall sphere mounted stone gate posts flanking the now disused entrance, which…gave access to a drive reaching to the main Chester and Whitchurch road…’

‘…two beautiful specimens of Jacobean woodwork…an exceedingly fine oak staircase… occupies the full width of the hall…On the moulded sides of the railings there are flowing designs greater portion of the main posts and balusters consist of boldly executed spirals…a very handsome wainscotted apartment fitted up by the last Lady Calveley…The ceiling was ornamented with figures and flowers hanging in detached festoons…’

‘…Dame Mary Calveley…built a domestic chapel in 1690…Lysons, in 1810, speaks of the chapel having been taken down…’

<2> Chester Courant, 1878-1990, The Cheshire Sheaf, Third series, vol.18, no.4293 (Newspaper-Magazine). SCH3105.

An extract from Harl. MS., No. 2010, f. 43, dated- 1671: Lady Calvely [freeholder], who has built a fair house and chapell upon it, 1674.

<3> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 405142 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

Hall: 1684 for Lady Mary Calveley, remodelled 1818 for Sir Thomas Legh of Lyme, some twentieth century alterations. Rendered brick with stone quoins and plinth. Hipped Welsh slate roof and two brick chimneys. three-storey, symmetrical, seven-bay front (1:2:1:2:1). End bays are set back and have twelve-pane sashes (one altered to patio window). Central five-bays form main block. Flush twelve-pane sashes in plain reveals. High solid parapet with sunken panels over the windows. Doorcase has reeded columns with semi-circular fanlight with radial glazing bars and a six-panelled door. To rear seventeenth century brickwork visible with a slighted band and cornice. Interior: Entrance lobby (probably taken out of left hand room which has no seventeenth century features) leads at back to excellent broad stair with a shallow flight, square landing and second flight to left. Double spiral newels with Baroque fruit bowl finials have Calveley arms to the front. Double spiral balusters and heavily moulded handrail with a frieze of intertwining roses and boughs of fruit. Room to right has painted bolection moulded panelling throughout, similar doors with H-hinges and a simple contemporary plaster ceiling. Main three-bay room upstairs has similar unpainted panelling throughout and good over-mantel with arms of Sir Hugh Calveley, carved lily leaves around the bolection, hanging garlands of fruit and foliage to the sides and carved acanthus in the pulvinated frieze. Contemporary doors. Room beyond, only has a panelled dado and a frieze with panels for tapestries, now removed.

<4> Ordnance Survey, 1870-1982, Ordnance Survey Archaeological Record Card, SJ45 NE 5 (Index). SCH2487.

<5> Chester Archaeology, 1985-1990, Chester Rows Research Project Archive (Paper Archive). SCH6789.

The staircase and the carved panelling fit uncomfortably into the house. They may have been moved from Lady Mary Calveley's town house, the present Oddfellow's Hall, 16-24 Lower Bridge Street, Chester, which was partly refitted in the later eighteenth century.

<6> Ormerod, G., 1882, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, Vol.II p.724 (Book). SCH1389.

‘Calveley Hall…had formerly a domestic chapel…It has been recently much altered, but in 1814, contained a very handsome wainscoted apartment, fitted up by the last lady Calveley, as appeared by her arms over the mantlepiece. The ceiling was ornamented with figures and flowers, hanging in detached festoons. This room communicated with another, hung with tapestry, now removed to Lyme.’

<7> de Figueiredo P & Treuherz J, 1988, Cheshire Country Houses, p.222-3 (Book). SCH785.

A late seventeenth century house with a later façade. The staircase appears squeezed into position, but was probably originally located centrally within a central hall, the ground floor rooms having been rebuilt around it. The quality of the carving on the staircase suggests it was locally made in the Restoration period. The first floor comprises two large decorated apartments which occupy all five bays at the front of the house.

<8> Hartwell C, Hyde M, Hubbard E & Pevsner N, 2011, The Buildings of England: Cheshire (2011 revision), p.388 (Book). SCH7059.

Built in 1684 for Mary, Lady Calveley. A five-bay front overlooking a walled forecourt. The upper-floor windows are taller, as at Lady Mary's house in Lower Bridge Street, Chester. A remodelling of 1818 may account for the lean-to side wings and the roughcast front.

<9> Cheshire Gardens Trust, 2011 onwards, Research and Recording Report, Calveley Hall, 2023 (Report). SCH6655.

Calveley Hall was built in 1684 for Lady Mary Calveley, second wife of Sir High Calveley.
Gate piers and front garden walls enclosing a garden at the front of the Hall are of the same period. After Mary’s death, the estate passed to the Leghs of Lyme by the marriage of one of Sir Hugh’s sisters.4 Ormerod refers to the enclosure of Milton Green “some thirty or forty years ago” (c. 1789?). The Hall was remodelled in 1818 for Sir Thomas Legh of Lyme. Greenwood’s County Map of 1819 suggests ornamental landscape associated with the Hall.
A Terrier of the Township of Handley 1822 shows the layout of lands surrounding the Hall in some detail. The Hall is now referred to as ‘Calveley Hall Farm’, with outbuildings shown. . Formal blocks of tree planting are shown within an area named “Milton Green” opposite the principal east elevation of the Hall which has a forecourt planted as a garden. A second garden lies to the south and an orchard to the west. There is a mixed plantation north east of the Hall.